Time & Actions
STRUCTURED TIME In contrast to the abstract approach of Narrative Time, Structured Time is important for resolving complex encounters, such as combat, when every second counts and the order in which things happen is crucial. Structured Time is divided into Rounds, Turns, and Actions.

ROUNDS A Round consists of every character participating in the encounter taking one Turn each. It is assumed that characters act more or less simultaneously in an encounter, so a Round is approximately ﬁve seconds long, regardless of how many characters are involved.

TURNS Each character in an encounter gets one Turn each Round. During a character’s Turn, he can perform one or more Actions. While characters’ Turns actually overlap each other slightly, Turns are resolved in a speciﬁc order known as Initiative Order (see page 241).

ACTIONS A character can perform one or more Actions during his Turn. If a character is performing multiple Actions during his Turn, the order in which they are resolved may or may not matter. For example, a character could draw his pistol and then move a few metres, or he could move ﬁrst and then draw his pistol, but either way the end result is the same. However, if the same character wants to shoot his pistol, he obviously needs to draw it ﬁrst! Actions are described in detail on page 242.

The Steps & Initiative
STEP 1: EFFECTS
SUPRICE is determined by the GM at the beginning of each round, usually at the first round of combat. But may be determined during later rounds, eg. when the Killer Kan smashes through the wall. Players are entitled to a roll to negate Suprise. As a rule: if conditions don't allow the attacking party to penalise the players negation/resistance roll, the conditions for suprice are not met. Eg. not well enough hidden, not enough back ground noise, not a sufficient distraction. Suprice eliminates the use of dodge and ALL reactions and confers +10 to +30 to the first round of attacks.
- Well coordinated attacks or attacks upon undisciplined forces may yield a diminishing bonus over up to 3 rounds: +30, +20, +10.
- Against targets prone to confusion or suffering from stupidity the +10 bonus will last for the duration of the combat or untill negated by outside interference.

STEP 2: ROLL INITIATIVE At the start of the ﬁrst Round, each character rolls for Initiative. Each character rolls 1d10 and adds his Agility Bonus (the tens digit of his Agility characteristic). The result of the roll applies to all successive Rounds in the combat. Ties are not resolved - some actions are simultanious.Eldar always win ties - and "yes" they are cheating.

STEP 3: DETERMINE INITIATIVE ORDER The GM ranks all the Initiative rolls, including those of the NPCs, from highest to lowest. This is the order in which the characters take their Turns during each Round of combat.
- After a succesful attack or defensive manuver (parry, dodge), the attacker or defender may call for a reroll.

STEP 4: COMBATANTS TAKE TURNS Starting with the character at the top of the Initiative Order, each character takes a Turn. The character currently taking his Turn is known as the active character. During his Turn, the active character can perform one or more Actions. Once his Actions have been resolved, the next character in the Initiative Order becomes the active character and takes his Turn, and so forth.

STEP 5: ROUND ENDS Once each character has taken a Turn, the Round is over. Any lingering effects that specify a duration of “until the end of the Round” now end.

STEP 6: REPEAT STEPS 4–5 AS NEEDED (Or untill the Blood God/Commanding Officer tells you to stop...) Continue to play successive Rounds until the combat is complete or until the event that triggered the switch from Narrative Time to Structured Time is resolved.

FLEEING AND LEAVING MELEE OR SUPPRESSED POSITIONS Sometimes the best course of action in combat is to get away from danger by any means necessary. A character can voluntarily ﬂee from an opponent or be forced to ﬂee because of Fear, a psychic power, or some other effect.

When a character ﬂees under his own control, he may take any of the following Actions: Disengage, Move, or Run. When a character ﬂees against his will, he must Run.

LEAVING MELEE/OVERWATCHED/SUPPRESSED POSITIONS If a character is engaged in melee with one or more opponents and he leaves combat with them (such as ﬂeeing or moving to another target) without using the Disengage Action, each of his opponents gets a free Standard Attack against the ﬂeeing character. Such a free attack is made in addition to any other attacks the combatant receives during his Turn. A position overwatched/suppressed may be left with out any penalties, as long as the player stays in full cover.

Actions
ACTIONS During each normal Round, every character gets a Turn to act. On his Turn, a character can take one or more Actions. There are ﬁve types of Actions in Only War, and every action also has one or more subtypes.
- In addition, characters in ONLY WAR, meaning trained baseline humans, may only take one Action with the Attack subtype and one Action with the Concentration subtype during their Turn.

Full Actions A Full Action requires a character’s complete attention to accomplish. A character can take one Full Action on his Turn and cannot take any Half Actions. Grappling an opponent, readying a shield or opening a secured tank hatch is an example of a Full Action.
- Some full actions may be attempted as "half actions", at the GM's discretion, but this will trigger a Stat/skill roll: if this fails nothing happens - the entire action is wasted. Eg. readying a shield hanging from your back as a half action, will trigger an AG roll. If that fails the shield stays put. Rolls are subject to penalties.

A Half Action is fairly simple; it requires some effort or concentration, but not so much that it consumes a character’s entire Turn. A character can take two different Half Actions on his Turn instead of taking one Full Action. Readying a weapon or making a Standard Attack are both examples of Half Actions.
- A popular option is: 1 attack & the option for 1 dodge. Most Ork don't get this and thus most Ork die young.
- You rarely get more attacks than your attack rating allows you to. In the context of an ambush, well prepared attack the GM may grant more attacks.Preparation is not aiming. Aiming is a prerequisit.

A Reaction is a special Action made in response to some event, such as an attack. A character receives one Reaction each Round, which may only be used when it is not his Turn. Examples include making an Evasion Test to avoid an attack.

Free Actions A Free Action takes only a moment and requires no real effort by the character. Free Actions may be performed in addition to any other Actions on a character’s Turn, and there is no formal limit to the number of Free Actions one character can take. The GM should use common sense to set reasonable limits on what can be done in a few seconds. Examples of Free Actions include dropping an item or speaking a few words.
- The GM has common sense: the rules clearly state this. Obey!

Extended Actions Some Actions take more time than a single Round to complete. Once a character commits to an Extended Action, he is considered to be working towards completing it for as long as necessary.
- If the character abandons the Extended Action, or is interrupted, some or all progress towards completing the Extended Action is lost. The character may even suffer consequences, eg. if tightrope walking or swimming against the raging river.

Action Subtypes In addition to its type, every Action is also categorised into one or more subtypes. Action subtypes don’t do anything in and of themselves, but they are used to clarify what a character is and is not allowed to do in a variety of special circumstances. For example, a character that is Immobilised cannot perform any Actions with the Movement subtype.